Boeing 747 Turns 40 Today

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the 747. To date, 1,412 have been delivered, and there are still 112 aircraft on order.

On the 35th anniversary, Boeing put out a news release that said, "Known as the "Queen of the Skies," the 747 has carried 3.6 billion people more than 35 billion nautical miles (64.8 billion km) -- equivalent to 74,000 round trips to the Moon -- since entering service in 1970."

Surprisingly, Boeing doesn't seem to have any press releases about today's anniversary that I can find.

I don't remember my first flight on a 747, but it was sometime in the late 1970s flying coast to coast in the US, on United Airlines I believe.

The accompanying video has some nice footage of a 747 in action. Enjoy.